Property owners who had been hesitant to invest in multimillion-dollar upgrades to improve the efficiency of their water and electricity systems have a new program that will allow them to finance the expenditures through the state.

With his signature, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed into law the Property Assessed Clean Energy Act, which enables business and property owners to apply for long-term loans that stay attached to the property in the event of a sale.

Dan Parsley, president and chief operating officer of Houston-based Energy Efficiency & Sustainability Consulting, said he expects the new program will be a real growth opportunity for his company, resulting in â€œmore jobs, more revenue for us and more sales tax for our local communities.â€

Charlene Heydinger, executive director of Austin-based Keep PACE in Texas, said the economic development angle of the PACE story goes further.

â€œSomebody is going to make those boilers, and build those towers and controls. Somebody has to transport and install (the equipment),â€ she said. â€œPACE will unlock a lot of opportunity to the private sector.â€

Heydinger explained that previously there were actually some disincentives for industrial building owners to spend large sums of money on upgrades. If they sold the property before the loan was paid off, or if they had funded it upfront, they would lose that profit. Under PACE, the loan is attached to the property itself, so itâ€™s the responsibility of the owner to repay it.

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